Stony Creek Bush Camp; great camping near Wilmington
After a truly amazing 3 weeks in the Flinders Ranges, we had a heap of dirty washing and were looking for somewhere quiet to pull up, clean up, do some washing and relax for a bit.
The Wilmington area looked stunning, and when Sarah stumbled across Stony Creek Bush Camp and Caravan Park, it seemed like a no brainer.
Where is Stony Creek Bush Camp?
You’ll find this little property roughly 5 minutes drive out of Wilmington, on part bitumen and part gravel road. The gravel is in reasonable condition and is easily doable in a 2WD.
What does it cost to camp?
Unpowered sites at Stony Creek are $24 per night for two adults, or $12 for one. We weren’t charged for our two kids (despite telling them about the kids), which was a lovely gesture.
Powered sites are $35 per night
What is at Stony Creek Bush Camp?
To us, Stony Creek Bush camp is the perfect caravan park. Its quiet, run by great staff, has plenty of room to spread out, all of the amenities you need and its well priced.
They have a war zone setup which our kids loved to explore as a playground, and everything that you need. The camp kitchen is well setup, with a Weber that can be used by all, and its even got a small playground for the kids to enjoy.
They only have washing machine and one dryer, but they are new, well maintained and do a great job. Between our folks and us, we probably did about 5 loads of washing and hung them in the wind to dry.
The amenities at Stony Creek Bush camp are spread around, and located in different types of buildings, but they all work well, and are kept nice and clean.
Last but not least, is the Stony Creek itself, which was flowing nicely when we arrived, and got a bit stronger the first night and then started to taper off. Some of the unpowered sites back onto the creek and we had one in the corner that was beautiful, with the babble of the water to put you to sleep, and plenty of room for the kids to run around.
Attractions near Stony Creek Bush Camp
In Wilmington, you can visit the puppet place, and go to the toy museum. We did the puppets, but skipped the toy museum.
We did however, head out to Alligator Gorge, which was spectacular. The drive up and then back down to the gorge was amazing, and probably a lot better when the weather is kinder; we couldn’t see much with all the fog but it was still quite incredible.
At Alligator gorge the intention was to walk down the 200 odd stairs, and do the narrow walk through the gorge to the other end. However, it didn’t take too long to realise that getting everyone through without someone slipping and falling over wasn’t going to happen. Under normal circumstances you’d have no issues, but we visited after a heap of rain and there was about 30cm of water flowing down most of the gorge.
We did cross back and forth a number of times carefully on the rocks, but it soon became too hard without water shoes and the desire to continue. I did take my shoes off and walked down into the gorge quite a way, and was shocked at how beautiful it is. We read a comment that this is like ‘Karijini without the crowds’ and would have to agree; it is absolutely stunning, and its fairly quiet. You do need a national parks pass to access it though.
Keen to see more?
If you want to see more of this great spot, here’s our vlog from the visit:
Do we rate Stony Creek Bush Camp?
Sarah’s got quite the knack for finding camp sites that suit us well, and we all really enjoyed Stony Creek Bush Camp. Caravan parks are not typically a place we enjoy and like to go with the pricing being high, too many people, no room for the kids to run around and no real nature to enjoy, but Stony Creek Bush camp is the perfect compromise.
Its not your typical caravan park, but was about as good as we could have hoped for!
The owners are fantastic, the park was nice and quiet and we’d highly recommend a stay here if you are passing through.
